American Horror Story: Apocalypse

The eighth season of AHS is coming up, and it's a crossover between seasons 1 (Murder House) and 3 (Coven). Now, while the last two seasons have been disappointments, I'm intrigued about this crossover concept, and them openly revisiting two seasons from the past. Other than a nod here and there, they've made the seasons pretty much stand-alone.

I thought I'd rank the seasons in order, would love to see others' opinions. Now, this is based on one viewing only (with an exception), and watching on a weekly basis rather than a "binge".

1. Hotel (season 5). The year it all came together, the most coherent storyline, the fewest tangents and subplots, the year it really looked like they had it planned from beginning to end, and by far the most sex and violence! Seriously, how FX let some of the stuff get on the air is really amazing. This was more suited to HBO or another pay channel, and were it a theatrical film it would easily be rated R. Evan Peters was not my favorite cast member in previous years, but he redeems it all in this season. I was also skeptical of Lady Gaga, but she knocked it out of the park in Hotel. I wanna get this on Blu-Ray and see if it holds up.

2. Murder House (season 1). A great start, and a hint of what's to come in terms of sex and violence. Alexandra Breckenridge as the younger version of the maid is easily a highlight. I'm actually re-watching this now in preparation for Apocalypse, and it's still pretty good. There's a few subplots thrown in that go nowhere though.

3. Asylum (season 2). Did I say "subplots that go nowhere"? Well, here in this story of a spooky insane asylum which is more than enough, we also get aliens and Nazis! Seriously. And that's the biggest downfall of Asylum. One of the highlights is the musical performance of "The Name Game", but unfortunately the creators took the positive response to that and added more musical episodes the next few seasons (another reason I was so pleased by Hotel; I thought with the addition of Lady Gaga we were going to be loaded with musical episodes but thankfully there were none)

4. Coven (season 3). Quality really starts going down here, and my 4-6 picks on this list are easily interchanged. Coven starts out amazing (Kathy Bates' character, in the 1800s, is especially nasty) but it clearly didn't have the end in sight. The finale is basically a reality show-type contest that begins with a Fleetwood Mac video. I read that Stevie Nicks was the one who suggested the episode begin with the Mac song "Seven Wonders", indicating that the finale was still in the planning stages while filming was happening. It shows. Angela Bassett is the high point of this season. Pretty impressive that a television show would have four actresses who have Oscar nominations for Best Actress, with two winners.

5. Cult (season 7). A miss, on what could have been a fantastic season. Cults are creepy as hell, and the idea of tying it in to the 2016 election and the cultish behavior of Trump supporters is a great idea. Unfortunately, it all came off clunky. Really, this one feels like a first draft. A little more time could have helped in the writing.

6. Freak Show (season 4). So much just doesn't work here, especially the two-headed Sarah Paulson. To be honest, she's not my favorite thing about AHS in general, and the special effects used to give her a second head rarely work. So many times they'd show just one of the heads (and granted, it's a difficult task as I'm pretty sure that Ms. Paulson does indeed have but one head) and thus the framing was more than a little bit off. Stunt casting with Neil Patrick Harris, and the freaks being a band that plays Nirvana and Bowie songs (despite the show taking place in the 1950s) add to the mess that is Freak Show. The only saving grace? The sideplot featuring Twisty the Clown. Should have just shown that, even if it would have only been a 2-3 episode season.

7. Roanoke (season 6). A total mess. I hate to use "jump the shark" because it implies a deliberate act that sinks a show and that did not happen here. But the previous season, Hotel, was just such a perfect effort that anything that followed was gonna be a disappointment. It's like Sha Na Na going on at Woodstock after Jimi Hendrix (that really happened, by the way). The "twist" midseason only prolonged the agony. Such a waste, too, taking a creepy concept and just completely blowing it.

So, despite the disappointment of the last two seasons, I'll still be tuning in next week. This will be the thread for Apocalypse discussion by the way.

My wife and I recently discovered this show on Netflix. I ended up purchasing all of the seasons on blu-ray, including Cult which I ordered from England. We loved Murder House, and yes Alexandra Breckenridge is magnificent. As Cult isn't available on Netflix yet, we haven't watched it. My ranking is vastly different from the majority.

I don't remember the specifics of episode 1 of Hotel, but I do remember it stretching the bounds of basic cable with the sex and violence. If that's not enough for you as a horror fan, you're right, it's not for you. Even with the hot mess that AHS can be, I still think it's on par with most of the theatrical horror we get nowadays. I mean, it's far preferable to ANOTHER reboot of Halloween, sequels to franchises that lost their charm decades ago, remakes of films that were flawless when they were first made, or yet another PG-13 horror (AHS, especially Hotel, would not be PG-13 if released theatrically). I really liked the trailer I posted last night, seems a little closer to "classic" AHS of the first 5 seasons and less "experimental" than the previous two, so I'm a little more jazzed for this year.

Sidenote: I'm almost done with my rewatch of Murder House, and was rather surprised to see a detailed account of the Roanoke Colony, a story they'd revisit in season 6. Admittedly, AHS throws a lot of references out, some are fleshed out and detailed, some just get minor mentions and are never talked about again, so it's easy to forget some of them when they're revisited.

I just watched the finale of Murder House, and it wasn't bad. It kind of neatly sewed things up. If you want BAD finales of AHS, Asylum and Coven are seasons you can literally stop watching after the penultimate episode and you'll do just fine.

I've thoroughly enjoyed every season of AHS for better or worse, and am looking forward to another. Every year I end up going head to head in in-depth arguments with the IT guy at work who insists that WALKING DEAD is the best thing on TV despite the fact that every year since MURDER HOUSE premiered, AHS has blown it away.

Rather than put this in the Bargains thread, I'll mention that I was in Best Buy last night and they had Blus of AHS on sale. Murder House was just $9.99, Freak Show and Hotel were $14.99. I got Hotel, so now I'll get to see if I enjoy it as much the second time.

The premiere was fun. I wish there had been a bit more of the actual apocalypse. In fact, they probably could have done an entire episode on the apocalypse. I'm not sure I'll be interested in an entire season of them in the bunker, but let's face it, American Horror Story is way too ADD for that. It'll go off on some crazy tangent at some point.

I haven't seen Coven since it originally aired, so someone refresh my memory. Are Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates supposed to be their same characters? I can't remember who they were at all in Coven, I think Paulson was blind or something? Supposedly this season ties into that and Murder House somehow.

I liked the pre-credit sequence, the rest of the episode not so much. But it won't be in the bunker for long, as it was mentioned that they only had 18 months of food, and the episode ends after an 18-month time jump.

The first episode of Apocalypse held my interest. I'm interested to see where it goes. I've seen all the previous seasons, and some I liked way better than others. But, one thing that AHS does consistently which drives me up the fucking wall is time-jumping.

You'll be right in the middle of the story and then all of a sudden it's like:

IDAHO, 1916

I don't understand why they can't just start at the beginning. Last season (Cult) was time-jump overkill. It got so incredibly confusing that I was actually angry at how complicated they made it. First, Evan Peters' character was a clown, then a politician, then he was Andy Warhol. It feels contrived, like Ryan Murphy is purposely trying to spin this elaborate web that doesn't need to be there. Also, sometimes I feel like the writers dig themselves into a hole, and just start throwing flashbacks in to explain shit that they realized they had no way to explain.

This season has pretty much been a hot mess, and all the Coven garbage has bored me silly. Even though I previously said I hope they don't stay in the bunker all season, I kind of wish they had. Although I will say I loved the Murder House episode, and the highlight of the season so far has been the Joan Collins Tales From The Crypt homage, which seriously made me giddy.

Also, what was the point of the Timothy and Emily characters? You know, that teenager who was taken from his home in the first episode, and fell in love with the girl in the bunker. They made it seem like he'd be a major part of the season, but anything having to do with them was left in the bunker after episode 3.

Seems like there's a lot to wrap up in a measly 40ish minutes of television.

I haven't watched last night's episode, but I clicked on this thread anyway not caring if there were spoilers. That says something.

I didn't even like the Murder House episode, as all they did was give a nice happy ending for everyone in that season (unlike how it went down on its first airing). So they even managed to ret-con Season 1 into a cruddy one. But we certainly get lots of Coven bickering, don't we?

This season has pretty much been a hot mess, and all the Coven garbage has bored me silly. Even though I previously said I hope they don't stay in the bunker all season, I kind of wish they had. Although I will say I loved the Murder House episode, and the highlight of the season so far has been the Joan Collins Tales From The Crypt homage, which seriously made me giddy.

Also, what was the point of the Timothy and Emily characters? You know, that teenager who was taken from his home in the first episode, and fell in love with the girl in the bunker. They made it seem like he'd be a major part of the season, but anything having to do with them was left in the bunker after episode 3.

Seems like there's a lot to wrap up in a measly 40ish minutes of television.

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To me, it feels like the structure of this season has unraveled. I was following along nicely and then it was like an explosion of nails in every direction. That's when shows lose me. I don't want to have to work to understand what you're trying to say.